Homicide Victim's Family Speaks

Deputies arrived at the Alon gas station on Coors and Blake after an alarm was triggered around 3:40 a.m., BCSO Cpt. Matt Thomas said. Thomas also said Perez died after an early morning altercation. Perez’s father said his son was trying to turn his life around. He intended to go to school at CNM and was helping his father out as a landscaper, he said. His family called him “whetto” or “white boy” because of the blonde hair that sprouted when he was a toddler. He was the second oldest of nine siblings. “It’s just a shame these days that these kids don’t know how to fight like men,” he said. “They pull out guns instead.”